Wednesday, 12 August 2015

I've called her The Big Red - if you think she looks good on the outside, wait till you see her faaaaabulous insides. But first here's the previous very brown look... alright in her day I suppose. Very 1960's.

But check out those legs! I spent some time painting her all over in a really strong, red, chalk paint.

Then fully sealed with clear and dark waxes before having some fun with the gilding.

When the doors open, you'll find the shelving and the original red cocktail sticks.

Martini sweetie?

Inside there are mirrors with two glass shelves and a light.

A customer was looking at the cabinet and I pulled the lower shelf out - it's mirrored too. She said, "Oh my - it's got everything, including a coke snorting shelf!!" Hahaha, I do love my customers :-)

Here's some pics that show those lovely legs and the way the gilding works with that yummy red colour.

Monday, 25 May 2015

Well, if you read my last post, I'm still in HOLIDAY mode! Still craving lots of sunny colour - I just finished this lovely little chest of drawers and I've booked a week away (hurruh!!) but more about that later...

Here's the before pic. In really nice condition (apart from the scratches) and the handles are OK, but I wanted to make this a statement piece.

Once I got into the painting, I sanded and filled the holes for the drawer pulls and replaced them with these STUNNING stag heads.

Lots of comments from customers.

Actually - lots of comments about this colour generally! Here's a pic of one of my customers - she loves this colour blue and often wears it :-)

The chest of drawers was created using Antique Turquoise chalk paint, clear wax and gilding.

It sold straight away, and guess what? My customer wasn't that keen on the handles, so they've been changed to the look she prefers. There will be a RETURN of stag head very soon!!

So which handles do you prefer? Stag heads or black ceramic pumpkins??

Saturday, 16 May 2015

I think I must be CRAVING a holiday! I just painted this chest of drawers a lovely Moroccan pink colour and nearly got carried away adding all that gold to finish. Every time I look at it I think how wonderful it would be to take a break in Marrakech right now...

It's all about colour for me at the moment, just look at these shoes hanging in a Souk :-D
Post Election blues??

Oh anyway - back to wood. I was so happy when I found this piece of furniture. Yes, it's true. Finding great furniture gives me a happy buzz. Anything with serpentine curves gets the thumbs up for my shop.

This is a super little chest of drawers - not only has it got the right curves, I noticed the legs had a kind of Eastern look to them.

I've been inspired!! I mixed some Autentico chalk paints to make a custom colour.
If you're into furniture painting, these chalk paints are water-based and it's easy to mix them together and come up with something new,

The colours I mixed were Amethyst, Ruby and Heliotrope to create this 'Dragon Fruit' pink colour. Here's the drawers once I painted a couple of coats all over.

Then I waxed the dry paint, firstly using a clear wax, followed by black wax to deepen the colour and add a bit of texture. Buffed up the wax a bit for a shine too.

Finally I added that gilding.

The handles are very sweet, I painted and gilded these.

There's a shelf to pull out above the drawers... yup, GILDED!

Tops of the drawers? You've guessed it, more bling.

Here's a pic in the shop - I painted an old mirror to match.

Lovely bevelling!

I just highlighted some of the existing design to bring out the glamour.

FABULOOOOOOUS... so now... where to book a holiday... thinking... hmmm...